Letters to the editor: Jan. 5, 2018

I applaud City Council Member Alison Alter for asking city staff to study and recommend legally required agenda-posting procedures. However, it’s shameful that it took two court rulings in the people’s favor to prompt this action. The city of Austin was founded in 1839. It shouldn’t have taken them 178 years to learn how to properly prepare their meeting notices — 179 before the study is completed.

We can at least be thankful for one thing. The City Council meetings have never failed to keep us entertained, befuddled and amused. In the words of Paul Simon, the folks at City Hall are “still crazy after all these years.”

BILL OAKEY, AUSTIN

I can imagine what it’s like to be a mother whose child gets sick without insurance. I can imagine it because there was a time when I was a single mother, going to college, and I had no health insurance.

During that year, in which I could eat only once a day, I was so thankful for the Children’s Health Insurance Program and free school lunches for my kids. Those days are long gone, but I will never forget what it’s like to live in poverty. A country as wealthy as ours cannot allow the single mothers to suffer worse than I did. Please fix this now. Congress should not vote for anything that does not include our most vulnerable!

We must protect our poor children and our Dreamers. Did you know that thousands of Dreamers are teachers? They are an invaluable asset to our families and to our country.

Talk about conspiracy theories. Pat Buchanan pontificates that Kremlin agents “fabricated, faked, forged, or found the dirt on Trump” and passed it on to former British MI6 spy Christopher Steele to create the “dirty dossier” for the FBI. And all of this was for the FBI to help Hillary Clinton win the 2016 election. Where’s the proof?

The Russians attacked our election. That is the issue. The closer various investigations get to the truth, the louder the enablers will shrill lies to create confusion and division among us. History will judge those who put party above country.

CHARLES A. PATINO, HUTTO

I wonder if the political conservatives whose homes were built in floodplains without their knowledge wish there had been more government regulations to protect them.

I also wonder if these coastal conservatives, some of whom are still in tents, are at all peeved with the party they elected and now controls all branches of government appearing not to be seriously intent about funding the Gulf Coast recovery.

In all fairness to the GOP though, they don’t really have the money to give to Houston, Rockport and the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge after the massive tax cuts that they just gave the ultrawealthy. But, I must admit I am somewhat joking. The GOP would never give money to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

Pat Buchanan is openly putting party loyalty over national security. He ignores the evidence that connects the Republican presidential campaign to elements of the Russian government. He ignores three indictments and a guilty plea (so far, with more information and indictments to come). He ignores the James Comey announcement (made as head of the FBI) trumpeting “important new Clinton email information” which occurred so close to the election that it might have violated laws, and which likely swayed some voters (but was of no substance). Instead, he suggests that the “real conspiracy” within the FBI was to help Hillary Clinton, but he presents no real evidence.

Russians tampered with our 2016 election. Their success means they will try again. Together, we must stop the next attempt. Partisan misdirection prevents us from learning what happened, making recurrence more likely. Shame on Buchanan.

WILLIAM V. DOWER, AUSTIN

We cannot allow these attacks against the FBI and Department of Justice to continue. This is witness intimidation and obstruction of justice.

As a member of Congress elected to represent your constituents and to uphold and protect our democracy and Constitution, I urge Sen. Ted Cruz to take immediate action to protect the Mueller investigation and to stop these baseless and illegal attempts by the president to undermine the investigation, special counsel Mueller, the DOJ and FBI, and our democracy.

America is watching, Senator Cruz. Do your job and protect this country and the Mueller investigation. Enact legislation to prevent the firing of the special counsel by a president who is under criminal investigation for collusion with a foreign power to steal the election. If he were a Democrat, you would have impeached him six months ago. Enough with the partisan politics. Put our country and democracy first while you still can.